Among its other nifty new features, iOS 10 includes a
souped-up Messages app that adds stickers, fun little visual
effects for messages, and most importantly of all,
apps for iMessages — a set of integrations that let you
access apps like Yelp, Venmo, and Fandango without breaking
the flow of your text conversation.

iMessage in IOS
10Florence Fu/Tech
Insider

That's potentially bad news for Google: If you're using Yelp in
Messages, you're not using Google Maps and its own restaurant
reviews. If you're using Fandango to share movie times with your
friends, you're not relying on Google's movie web searches. The
less you use Google, the fewer ads they can show you, and the
less money they make.

Google Allo for
iPhoneGoogle/Business
Insider

Which is where Google comes in with Allo. Instead of offering an
array of apps, Allo builds in the full intelligence of Google.
You can use
Allo's built-in Google Assistant to access movie times, news
headlines, restaurant details, and more, all taken from Google's
whole suite of services. Plus, unlike Apple's Messages, Allo
works on iOS and Android alike.

The stakes in this messaging battle are clear for both companies:

Apple's iMessages can win twice: Because it's
only on iPhone, it's a great sales tactic to move people over
from Android and keep them upgrading to the latest model. Plus,
Apple takes a 30% sale of all sticker packs and iMessage apps
sold, as it does for all apps on iOS.

Google needs to stay relevant: A
big part of the reason why Google bothers with Android in the
first place is to make sure that its search engine stays
relevant even as more computing moves to the smartphone and
tablet. If the whole app economy is shifting towards messaging,
Google needs a competitive play across all devices, or else it
opens the door for other companies to eat its lunch.

The third major player here is Facebook, which offers WhatsApp
and Facebook Messenger, both of which work across platforms, and
the latter of which is investing heavily in bots and other
interactive chat tools. Ultimately, Facebook is going to be a
bigger problem for Google, given the edge Apple has by making
iMessage the default tool on iPhones.

Bots in Facebook Messenger.Facebook

It's still early innings for all of this. Apple's iMessages App
Store still feels pretty gimmicky, and Google Allo's Assistant is
said to have a long way to go before it's truly useful. But as
both sides of this particular aisle improve, Apple and Google are
going to be scrambling to win more users to their particular
messaging apps.